Monthly Drive Supports Need for Blood in Northern Virginia

Every day, hospitals in Northern Virginia have a lot of patients in need of what we all have — blood.

Monthly, an Inova Blood Donor Services bloodmobile comes to Reston Town Center to help collect precious inventory for those patients. The mobile service is at Reston Town Center today — and the fourth Tuesday of every month — from noon to 6 p.m.

“We encourage everybody to go out and donate,” said Wally Paraiso, mobile ops team leader for Inova Blood Donor Services.

Paraiso said the bloodmobile has been making its regular visits to Reston Town Center for about five years. It sets up on Discovery Street near the pavilion.

Sharing figures from the past three months, Paraiso said the Reston bloodmobile has been averaging about two dozen donors a month. The number of donors varies — 35 came in March, but only 18 came in April. Paraiso said it is important to keep blood supplies up.

“Every day, there are a lot of patients who need blood,” he said.

Donors receive a T-shirt (while supplies last) and parking validation for up to two hours. Prospective donors are encouraged to pre-register online or call 866-BLOODSAVES and use sponsor code 1000.

If the Reston Town Center drive isn’t convenient, Paraiso said there are several other drives across Virginia, Maryland and D.C. on a daily basis. Residents are encouraged to search Inova’s website to find one that’s right for them.

Paraiso said the bloodmobile has been making its regular visits to
Reston Town Center for about five years. It sets up on Discovery Street
near the pavilion.

Please find somewhere else in Reston. I want to donate blood, but I am not going to pay to park in RTC. Boston Properties will not get ONE DIME of my money.

Never!

And no, “parking validation” is not good enough., because that just means someone else is paying BP thanks to something I did.

Jabir the Troll

You don’t actually know that someone else is paying BP to validate parking, you are just speculating. I can speculate too: you don’t actually care enough about donating blood, you would rather take the opportunity to complain about parking in RTC.

Never!

I would not assume “validation” means BP is letting donors park for free, but if BP (or Inova) can clarify that point, I will take it into account.

I donate blood to Red Cross four times a year. How about you?

Anonymous Poster

The parking situation at RTC is super obnoxious. I don’t want to download that app because of the permissions it requires and what a pain it is to use.

Can Inova find another place to park? What about in the turnabout outside of Wiehle-Reston East, and get all the foot traffic from commuters?

Hmm

Inova has an emergency room across the street froim Harris Teeter. Why not park the bloodmobile there?